I use Wordperfect at the office, but now working on something at home where I have Microsoft Word, and I’m having some trouble. I indented some paragraphs using the tab key, but decided I don’t want them indented. Some moved over to the left margin (where I want them) when I backspaced,
but I have some paragraphs that won’t budge.
Checking “Help” I found a “decrease indent”
topic which tells me to select the paragraph then click on “decrease indent.” Where the hell is “decrease indent”?? I’ve looked under everything. Or do you know a better way to eliminate unwanted indents?
The paragraphs that won;t budge were probably auto-formatted by pesky MSW.
Put your cursor at the beginning of the paragraph you want to un-indent, and backspace 'til the line moves up to the previous paragraph, then hit return a couple of times. IF MSW moves the text to the right again, immeditately hit ctrl-z to Undo AutoFormat. There is probably an easier way (like turning off all auto-formatting) but this should accomplish what you need in a pinch.
Good Luck!
I’m not sure if you’re saying that you don’t want MSword to indent anything at all, or if you just want that one particular document unindented.
If it’s the former, follow MotorGirl’s advice, and kill the auto-formatting.
If it’s the latter, and it’s a large document, try using the REPLACE function.
Go to EDIT >> REPLACE, then enter however many spaces a TAB is (5?) in the FIND WHAT box. Leave the REPLACE WITH box empty.
This will replace every instance of “X number of spaces” with a null-string.
You may have to play with it to get it perfect.
G’luck
David
Screw all that…just click inside the FIND WHAT box, then click on the MORE button.
Now, click on the SPECIAL button, and select TAB CHARACTER.
Leave the REPLACE WITH box blank, and you should be ok.
I knew there was an easier way!
-David
Or you could use the “decrease indent” button.
Click View.
Click Toolbars.
Make sure that Formatting is checked on.
There will be four buttons together that control indentation.
The first assigns outline numbers and is indicated by three “lines” prefixed 1, 2, 3.
The second assigns bullets and is indicated by three “lines” prefixed by bullets.
The third decreases indentation as is indicated by a block of lines moving left.
The fourth increases indentation and is indicated by a block of lines moving right.
Highlighting a block of data and clicking the third button will shift the block left.
Indentation is not identical to tab spacing, so mixing tabs and indentation can give you funky results on different fonts and font sizes.
Tom~
There is a much easier way than what has been outlined above. To answer your original question…
Look on your toolbar (not on the menu items at the top of the screen). You should see buttons for numbering (it has 3 horizontal lines and the numbers 1, 2, 3 on it) and bullets (3 lines with bullets next to them). Next to those (or somewhere in the vicinity) you should see two buttons that have a bunch of lines on them with a tiny arrow on each one, one facing left and one facing right. When you move your cursor over these buttons it will TELL you that one is “decrease indent” and the other is “increase indent.”
Highlight the paragraph that is indented and click on the appropriate button on your toolbar to move it to the left - it’s as simple as that.
The MENU way to do it is to highlight the paragraph then click on “Format.” Choose “Paragraph.” Make sure that the alignment is set to “left” and that the indent is set to 0".
Good luck.
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” - Anne Frank
OOPS. Simulpost with Tom~. What he said. 
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” - Anne Frank
An alternative:
-
Lay out about $80 for a Corel office suite that includes WordPerfect (as well as Presentations, Quattro, etc.).
-
In WordPerfect, open your MS Word document. Edit in WordPerfect using Reveal Codes to find the pesky indents tabs, etc. Save as MS Word document.
Second alternative. Stick to WordPerfect.
I got rid of the indents. I don’t want MSWord formatting automatically, but can’t figure out how to undo it - the options menu for it does not include disabling it. I tried the Ctrl-z but that didn’t do it.
I’m not going to lay out $80 for Corel office suite. My office computer converts MSW to WP, then I fix stuff there, but I would like to learn how to use MSW. So now I have another problem with it - it put a border and shading around my To, From, & Subject lines. I assume this is another autoformat thing (or maybe I accidentally did it while trying to fix the indents). How do I kill the autoformat?
Take “indents in” and you got yourself a damn good question.
JMcC, San Francisco, JJTM’s new page
If I were beaned with a fastball, fling my limp, lifeless body to first, cause, dammit, I earned it!
I believe that all the settings are under FORMAT in the menu…you can set tabs, borders, shading, and autoformat options there.
Also, you can try TOOLS >> OPTIONS for some other settings.
Don’t forget to click APPLY when you’re done!
-David